State discom to profit this year
The Tamil Nadu discom is expected to register profit during the year 2017-18 after a long gap of 15 years, said the government. In 2017-18, Rs 2,150 crore profit is expected as against a loss reported in the previous years for Tangedco. "After a long gap of 15 years, it is expected that Tangedco will break even during the year 2017-18, which is on a fiscal year basis without considering the debt of around Rs 81,000 crore," said P Thangamani, Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise. Various steps, including joining the UDAY Scheme and efficient coal management and import substitution has helped the government reduce the losses of Tangedco from Rs 13, 985 crore in 2013-15 to Rs 3,783 crore in 2016-17. The gap between the Aggregate Rate of Realisation (ARR) and Aggregate Cost of Supply (ACS), which was Rs 2.16 in 2010-11, was reduced to Rs 0.44 in 2016-17. The state has added an additional power of 10,496 Mw from 2011 by commissioning new power stations in the state and central sectors, through medium and long-term power purchase agreements. It has harnessed 13,000 million units from wind generators in the last wind season and 1,644 million units of solar energy in 2016-17. The rating of Tangedco, which was C+ during FY15, has been rated as B for FY16 in the State Distribution Utilities Annual Integrated Rating published by the Union Ministry of Power. This, because of the financial turnaround and other constructive measures initiated. The rating is expected to go up to A during this financial year. The aggregate technical and commercial losses of Tangedco, which was 20.24 per cent during 2010-11, have been reduced to 14.58 per cent in 2015-16 due to various improvement and strengthening works taken by Tangedco. It is further planned to reduce the losses to 13.50 per cent by 2018-19, through modernisation system strengthening and improvement works. After Tangedco has joined the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme initiated by the Government of India, loans of Rs 22,815 crore has been taken over by the State government. The state has also provided a guarantee for Rs 7,605 crore to Tangedco for mobilisation of funds through issuing of bonds for repayment of debts.
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